


From A Certain Point of View

by UlisaBarbic



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Fear, Fear of Death, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Heartbreaking, Mother-Son Relationship, Protectiveness, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26633041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlisaBarbic/pseuds/UlisaBarbic
Summary: Chi Chi agreed to let Gohan train with his father for the Androids. It’s proving much harder than she imagined.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	From A Certain Point of View

“Mom?”

ChiChi paused in her chopping and turned. It only took her a moment to spy Gohan by the door, a stack of papers pressed hard into his chest. He didn’t have on the gi he’d been insisting on but he didn’t have on regular clothes either. Just some sweatpants and an undershirt. Far as she was concerned, he was far too young to be worrying about undershirts but she’d be lying if she said he wasn’t adorable in it. And he always was spouting about wanting to “look like Daddy.”

So she could allow it.

“What is it, Gohan? Need help with your homework? You ARE keeping up with that, right?”

She could practically see him huff but the boy was polite and if he had any rude thoughts, he wisely kept them to himself. “I’ve been keeping up with it, just like I promised. Daddy and Mr. Piccolo wanted to do some training by themselves today.” He walked over and flopped down on the chair, arms folded. “I’m not fast enough yet.”

ChiChi considered her response. Much as she would have loved to use that as an excuse as to why he shouldn’t be involved, she didn’t believe in dissuading her son. He had potential and talent and even if she wished it was JUST in academics, she knew otherwise. While it took her some time to come to terms with this Android mess...

Her Goku had told her what happened to her Gohan in that future. No. That could not and would not happen here.

She refused.

“Not fast enough?” She asked. “Is that what they said?” She approached and sat a small plate of cut fruit in front of her son. Wiping her hands on a dish cloth, she set a small glass of juice in front of him as well. 

Pouting, Gohan took a handful of the cubed apples, with a light bow of thanks, and clarified “Daddy says I’m getting there. Mr. Piccolo says I’m a slug.”

“He’s one to talk about being slugs,”’ChiChi remarked under her breath. “Well, what do they expect? You’re only a little boy.”

“Am not!” Gohan protested, hands firm on the table. “Mom, I’m seven!”

Despite herself, ChiChi smiled. Much as Gohan likely thought this declaration made him very grown up, it just reinforced to her how young he was. But she could play. “So you are. I do suppose that’s not quite a little boy anymore, is it?”

Shaking his head, Gohan declared “And I’m a lot closer to eight than I am seven!”

“Are you now?” She sat across from him, took a moment to pretend to count in her head. “Well, I do believe you’re right on that one. I guess it is hard for me and even your father to remember that sometimes.”

“Well, _I_ don’t forget it.” Gohan frowned. “If I wanna be able to help them train, I hafta get faster, Mom!” He eyed her, “So I thought maybe you could help me!”

Well, color her surprised on that one. Training was always Goku’s territory and given how opposed she was to it, Gohan’s request surprised her even more. “Me?”

Nodding, Gohan swallowed and said “I wanna get fast so I can impress Daddy and Mr. Piccolo. And you used to train, didn’t you, Mom? You made it to the World Tournament! You were a semi-finalist!”

Lifting her head up, if just a bit, ChiChi nodded “I was.”

“So you have to know some tricks and stuff too. Daddy says I have a lot of Mr. Piccolo’s style of fighting but now I have Daddy’s too. So...maybe I can add some of yours too!” There was slight hesitation at the end. After all, he was pressuring for more training when she’d not been thrilled about agreeing to it at all. “Could...think you could show me how to be faster, Mom?”

ChiChi let her nails tap the table. “Faster, eh?”

“Yeah. And I know you’re fast. I’ve seen you cook.”

Laughing a little, she remarked, “Well, that’s a bit different. But I think you’d be surprised how much your Daddy and I fight alike. My Pa—your Grandpa—was trained by Master Roshi too.”

“Is that how Daddy got so fast? What did Master Roshi do?”

Biting the inside of her cheek, ChiChi stared at her son. Her beautiful, soft-hearted boy. Her brave, fearless little warrior. Her curious little explorer. 

“He tied your father to a tree and had him dodge bees. He had him out swim a shark. He had him plow a field with his bare hands.” She waited, expectingly. Her son, if nothing else, still hated bees. THAT much, despite the craziness of the last few years was the same.

Gohan looked at her, took in this information—she could practically see him visualizing by the way he would since—then stood up “I can do that!”

Well, ChiChi was up in a shot. “You most certainly will not! I said you could train with your father but you’re not going to jump into the ocean with a shark!” She folded her arms, satisfied in the finality of that statement. “Absolutely not!”

The boy set her with a look nearly identical to her own. “I hafta do something, Mom! I’m not fast enough, I need to get faster! I know you want me stay home and be safe but if I do that—“

“If you do that, you’ll be safe!” ChiChi stood herself. “I’d be completely okay with that—“ Okay, maybe yelling wasn’t the best response because she HAD given her okay but she’d not given an okay for her son to torture himself—

“Well, _I_ wouldn’t!” Gohan ground his hands into fists. “I wouldn’t be okay with it because I’d be doing nothing while people got hurt or killed when I could do something to stop it! I know you’re my mom and your concern is with me but I care about more than me!” Maybe that was harsh, unnecessary, cruel even. His mother was a lot of things but Gohan would never think selfish to be one of them. But right now, his heart racing over what might be coming and the future that might not be changed if he wasn’t ready, well, he was focused on that. “And if you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself!”

Pushing the chair back, he ran for the door, ChiChi right on his heels. 

“Gohan! You come back here, right now! I know you hear me, Gohan!”

The boy gathered his ki, took to the sky with a blast of energy that knocked her back a ways and was gone.

OOO

It didn’t take ChiChi long to track him down. Her son was still pretty predictable and he was drawn to the large lake where Goku swan and caught them fish like a moth to fire. Not that she blamed him. The entire atmosphere of the lake—clover around the edge, cliffs that provided ample diving room and the occasional deer walking up to the shore—illuminated tranquility.

Gohan, his sharp ears catching her steps—if he wasn’t reading her ki—turned and she was relieved that there was no longer any brilliant anger fire in his eyes. Turning, he stood, bowed to her “I’m sorry, Mom. I shouldn’t have shouted at you.”

ChiChi exhaled. Her own fire never lasted long and that was doubly true when it concerned Goku or Gohan. It was like being mad at a puppy—eventually, you started to feel bad about it. “Well, I wasn’t exactly settin’ the best example. I started the yellin’ first.” She sat next to him, “Can we try this again?”

Gohan nodded. “Yeah.”

The two were quiet a moment then ChiChi said, “I know you’re a strong boy, Gohan. I know you’re a strong fighter. Whenever you and your Daddy fight, I see it. You got your Daddy’s passion.”

The boy’s turned to stars with how much they sparkled. “You think so, Mom?”

“I’ve know your father long enough to know when someone fights like him.” She smiled, reached over and gently stroked a loose hair behind the boy’s ear. “You’re your Daddy’s boy, that’s for certain.”

Gohan smiled and she loved the warmth that fell from his eyes. Oh, if she could bottle that, it would light up the whole world. If she could make sure he would always have such happiness on his face, there was absolutely nothing she would not surrender. 

“So...why won’t you help me then?” Gohan’s return to the topic broke the serenity open as a fruit hurled on a tree. “I mean, you told me I was strong, that I was a good fighter! So, why won’t you let me do this?!” He narrowed his eyes “It’s not just ‘bout the extra trainin’, it’s still the trainin’ itself!”

ChiChi eyed him. “If we’re gonna talk, we’ll talk. So let’s not be yellin’, either one of us.” 

Gohan’s face turned red and he nodded “Sorry.”

ChiChi took a deep breath in. “Gohan, I trust your father to train you right. I know he’s gonna take care of you but also push you. That’s the way it’s supposed to go.”

“But why is it bad to want to make myself stronger?”

“It’s not, by itself.” ChiChi remarked. “But you don’t always make the best decisions if you’re pushin’, pushin’, pushin’ yourself. That’s why when you train, you’re supposed to have a partner and a master. To keep you from half-killin’ yourself.”

“But I’m talkin’ about doin’ training that Daddy did! You don’t trust the techniques your own Dad did?”

ChiChi exhaled through her teeth. “And my Pa and your father were twelve or older when they did that. You, little mister, are seven.”

Gohan folded his arms in a very good imitation of her own scowl. “That’s just a number, Mom. Daddy didn’t fight an alien until he was fifteen either but I’ve already done that.”

Well, that was a fair point.

“I’ve already done a lotta stuff, Mom, that Grandpa and Daddy didn’t do until later. I don’t think askin’ to do that simple training they did is too much. Why are you actin’ like it is?” Again, though significantly calmer this time, he accused “Its still the training itself, isn’t it? You were a martial artist, Mom. Daddy IS one. Why do you act like me wantin’ to do this is the end of the world?”

Sighing as if the entire weight of the world were on her shoulders, she replied. “Because you shouldn’t have HAD to do that, Gohan. Just like your Daddy shouldn’t have to rush to the rescue of the world all the time. It ain’t right.” She shuddered, remembering how both of them looked on that battlefield—bloody, bruised, broken. How they’d both been so limp in her arms...

“But it’s how it is.” Gohan argued. “We can help the world and other people so shouldn’t we?”

“And like I tol’ your father, I’m not the world’s mother!” She caught herself, repeated her statement in a calmer tone. “I’m not the world’s mother.” He hadn’t been dead but he might as well had been...her limp Gohan and her battered Goku...

“No.” Gohan admitted. “But you are the mother of a boy who happens to LIVE in this world. And who loves it.”

She eyed him, “Gohan...”

“I know, Mom. You and Daddy would rather keep me home and safe if you could. Daddy even told me that.”

She blinked, surprised. “He did?”

“Yeah!” He rocked back and forth a bit. “Daddy said he wished we could fish and play and just spar for fun together. But that’s not how it is. But he also told me that I was dragged into this and it wasn’t fair. So if I wanted out now, just tell him. If I wanted to stay at home with you, I could. He wouldn’t think bad of me for it. Just tell him what I wanted.”

Closing her eyes, ChiChi said “And you tol’ him you wanted to help.”

“I did.” Gohan reached over and grabbed her hand. “Think of it like this, Mom. What if the scientist in the future knew how to cure that heart disease Daddy is gonna get but he didn’t want to because it might be risky to make. Sure, he has the right not to but people who then lost parents or friends or children to it...they have a right to be mad at him. Because he could help but he didn’t.” Gohan hugged her suddenly. “That’s me, Mom. I’m the scientist that knows they can help people and even if it’s scary to do, I have to because I can’t live with myself otherwise.”

ChiChi looked down, stroked her son’s hair back. “I know. Your heart has always been too big for your body.” Both bless and damn his heart. 

Gohan looked up at her but still kept his chin tucked on her chest. “I’m not askin’ you to like it, Mom. Just to respect that it’s real important to me. Please.”

ChiChi squeezed him tight. “Every time I look at you, I still see the little baby you used to be. When all we had to worry about was you wanderin’ too far into the woods. I miss those days, Gohan. When I didn’t have to worry so much.”

Gohan nodded to her “And maybe we can get those back some day. But they aren’t gonna come back on their own, Mom.” 

She smiled, sadly “I know. I know you’re right. You’ve always been my smart boy. So, forgive me when I cling too hard some days, okay?”

He eyed her and nodded “So...does this mean I can do that training? The get-faster training?”

“...when your father gets home tonight, we’ll talk about it.”

Grinning, Gohan withdrew only to fling himself at her with a strong embrace that sent them both to the ground. “Thanks, Mom!”

ChiChi held him close to her chest and hoped he didn’t see the tears in her eyes. That he couldn’t hear how her heart pounded because it felt like she had just signed her own son’s death warrant. How her breath came quick just imagining what might befall him and how easily even a strong body could break. 

_Gohan died tryin’ to beat them._

What Goku had told her that night, the night he came home about that future visitor. He’d told her that in that horrible future, her Gohan paid with his life for the earth.He died saving that future traveler and ChiChi cursed him. Why couldn’t HE have died and her Gohan—future timeline or not, he was—had lived? Maybe that made her selfish, she surmised. Wishing that kind of heartache on another woman. On another family. But she couldn’t help it.

Pulling a Gohan tight into her chest, she said, “If you’re going to fight, you’re going to be the best, you just watch.” 

No one would be better than her Gohan. He would be strong, powerful, fast, smart. Better than her. Better than Goku. Better than whatever hell the world decided to unleash onto them.

_Gohan died tryin’ to beat them._

Fate. Be. Damned.

Fate. Be. Damned.

Fate. Be. Changed.


End file.
